The present invention is directed to disposable sheaths for endoscopes and more particularly to a low profile disposable sheath that provides effective flushing of surgical debris from the viewing end of an endoscope.
The term “surgical debris” is intended to refer to any body material such as blood or tissue that lands on the viewing end of an endoscope during surgery and obscures the field of view through the endoscope.
Endoscopes permit remote visual examination of a surgical site while a surgical procedure is being performed. During surgery, blood, tissue or other bodily material from the surgical site can splatter onto the viewing end of the endoscope and obscure the field of view through the endoscope.
In some instances it is necessary to remove the endoscope from the surgical site to clean the viewing end, which usually interrupts and undesirably prolongs a surgical procedure. Because of the inconvenience of removing and cleaning an endoscope during surgery, some surgeons prefer to use an endoscope with a sheath that has provision for flushing away any surgical debris that obscures the view through the endoscope. The sheath can include air tubes, water tube and suction tubes to flush away or suction out surgical debris from the viewing end of the endoscope. The irrigation, suction and air tubes on the endoscope sheath can add significant girth to the profile of the endoscope and require an incision of corresponding size to accommodate the endoscope and sheath.
Known endoscope sheaths, such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,991,565 and 4,974,580, are usually custom fitted to the endoscope. Since many endoscopes are of different lengths, a diversity of different size sheaths are required to custom fit each different length of endoscope with a sheath. Large inventories of customized endoscope sheaths of different length are therefore generally maintained to ensure compatibility with each different endoscope. To reduce the need for large inventories of endoscope sheaths, sheaths having a fixed length but usable with a variety of endoscope lengths have been proposed, such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,989183 and 6,110,103. While reducing the required inventory of endoscope sheaths, a variety of sheath lengths are still required, as many different endoscope lengths are used, and large differences in length between the endoscope and the sheath can make operation and control of the endoscope and/or sheath difficult.
It is thus desirable to provide an endoscope sheath that has an adjustable length to accommodate a variety of different endoscope lengths, and that can effectively flush debris from the viewing end of the endoscope.